Title

Authors

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publisher

University of Macau

Faculty

Faculty of Business and Law

School

School of Business

RAS ID

17162

Comments

This article was originally published as: Collins, N. S. (2013). The road to Damascus leads to one infinite loop: An introspective adventure into Apple computer customer evangelism. In Proceedings of the Asia Pacific CHRIE Conference. Macau SAR, China: University of Macau.

Abstract

This paper draws on a literature review, conceptual development and an introspective narrative to explore “quintessence” and Customer Evangelism (CE). Quintessence, a mystical connection between the customer and a product, elevates a profane product experience to the sacred. This paper argues that the quintessential moment, the root of the Customer Evangelism conversion experience, awakens or redirects a propensity toward evangelistic behaviour. As the moment of conversion, quintessence is as pivotal as it is mystical. Tourism entities can attempt to nurture a seemingly religious experience, and for some entities quintessence is an unexpected by-product. An introspective narrative, through one of the author’s experiences with Apple Computer products, commences exploration into quintessence and its relationship to Customer Evangelism. After a literature review, this paper outlines a Customer Evangelism model with quintessence, and then triangulates that model with the narrative data.